Possible wheel bearing issue?

Wondering if I have a wheel bearing issue on my son's 2011. They seem to be pretty common. He's away at college so he drives and hears it everyday and said there is more road noise now than previously. He has some pretty aggressive tires that are pretty new, so I'm wondering if normal wear is just making them louder. (This happened to the tires on my Avalanche.). I'm visiting him right now and drove his car to see what he's talking about. I hear the noise, but it's not a constant hum. It's one of those hums that goes like a music beat: hum, hum, hum, hum and gets faster as the vehicle gets faster. (Sorry for the bad description.)

Unfortunately I don't have any way to get the vehicle up and check it out myself, and wouldn't be able to fix it if I did anyway. But I just wanted to see if there were opinions out there on what it might be so I can start doing research and figure out a game plan to fix it the next time he's home.

 

Without jacking it up and spinning the tire it's hard to tell if it's tires or bearing. Could rotate tires and see if it changes or moves. What tires?

 

That's what I figured. The tires are Nitto Terra Grappler G2's. They've only got about 9k miles on them. I'm gonna go get them rotated and balanced just to see if that takes care of the noise or moves it like you said.

 

I'd say it's likely that wheel bearing might need some checking, I replaced front bearings at probably 125K miles on my old 2010 4Runner. It sort of usual wear and tear they all need to be replaced at some point.

 

I guess I should have done that when I had it torn apart replacing upper control arms and bunch of other stuff before he went to school. It has 150k miles on it. We bought it used with about 138k on it, so I have no clue if they've ever been replaced. I guess I know what I'm doing when he comes home for Thanksgiving.

 

Jacking up and rocking the tires up/down is the best way. But I've also found that when a bearing is going out, I'll get a pronounced humming while going through a sweeping turn. It won't do it a slow speeds, it takes some speed and a sweeping turn. Good luck.

 

Rotation didn't change anything. The noise stayed at the driver side front tire. Now to start researching how to do this job. Unfortunately I have custom sized wheel studs in these hubs so I'll have to move those to the new hubs when I do this job.

 

Like @scanny , replaced front bearings at 125k as preventative maintenance. No noticeable difference in drivability but more peace of mind i guess. The originals were not bad but there was a difference in each one regarding resistance to rotate. One was easier to rotate than the other but neither felt gritty or noisy. I found OE Koyo bearing/hub assembly from a seller on eBay. They matched the originals to a T. Made the job fairly easy and did not require a press.

Good luck!

 

See if there is play in the bearing. Get the wheel off the ground, grab it at 12 and 6 o’clock push/pull in opposing directions. If there is movement, you need new hubs.

good luck!
Mike

 

I suppose it could if you were to sense where the play was coming from. You should be able to see and hear it in the upper ball joint.

 

I had a front wheel bearing go bad on my 97’ Tacoma around 150k miles. I could feel it in the floor board before it actually made noise.

 

Probably gonna get new hub assemblies from the dude on TacomaWorld that apparently is pretty popular. Wondering if I should do the ECGS clamshell bushing while I have everything opened up. No idea if the needle bearing is bad, but there is a lift on the vehicle and figure if I have everything opened up it might be a good idea to do it proactively. Any thoughts?

 

Definitely get the bearing / hub assembly if you choose to go that route. I did just the bearings in my buddy's shop on my 4th gen years ago. We had weld up a fixture then needed a 50 ton press to separate the bearing from the hub. Never again.